What has Pet Sounds meant to you?

[SamMcK]

I only wrote this post for myself, but I also thought i'd post it here. and 'wouldn't it be nice' to hear other talk about this album for once.

It was 50 years ago tomorrow, May 16th 1966. On that day The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds. Many consider it among the greatest albums of all time. I happen to include myself in that group. It just has an emotional resonance to it that is almost hard for me to describe with getting a bit misty eyed. Melodramatically, in many ways, its the album thats saved my life on a few occasions. Songs that have given me hope, songs that have made me think about my past and future, where it is I’m headed etc.  



Sometimes i’ve just wanted to go away for a while, or when I was living away at Uni, I just wanted to go home. I’ve felt so out of step with people in my own age group that i’ve wanted to leave my degree. At its most simplest, sometimes I just feel very sad. For someone dealing with depression and anxiety. This album has been my closest friend at times when I’ve just wanted the ground to swallow me whole.

Listening to Pet Sounds can sometimes be a very melancholy experience, in a certain mindset. But it is also very comforting. I’m sure other fans feel the same way, many of us will cling to the deeper, more seemingly meaningful side of the music. For certain rough patches, it can tear your heart out. But afterwards it can also give you a new perspective on life’s experiences. All I can say is, music can heal better than almost anything else. It can make you feel alive even at your most destructive. Pain doesn’t go away, but as long as you’ve got a heart and soul, you can always pick up the pieces and carry on.

God bless the likes of Brian Wilson, a man who’s had more then his own fair share of demons in his lifetime, I hope he is truly happy. (On a sidenote, its quite eye-opening for me personally to realise I’m now only a year younger than he was when he wrote the music for Pet Sounds) I look forward to seeing him perform on Sunday. (and next month when I'm in the States)

[You Kane, You Commanded, You Conquered]

50 years already, and there's still nothing quite like it. This is the real "symphony to God".

[JK]

God bless the likes of Brian Wilson, a man who’s had more then his own fair share of demons in his lifetime, I hope he is truly happy. (On a sidenote, its quite eye-opening for me personally to realise I’m now only a year younger than he was when he wrote the music for Pet Sounds) I look forward to seeing him perform on Sunday. (and next month when I'm in the States)

Hi, Sam. It's always a thrill to read about Pet Sounds. Thanks for your thoughts and enjoy the show on Sunday. :=) 

[Pretty Funky]

May 16 here in NZ.

Happy 50th Pet Sounds! 

My first listen was as a teen in 1978 after only hearing a GHs album. What a difference. Almost weird in fact. Since then it gets a listen regularly and more often than not as a whole. The best way to enjoy it.

Many more spins to come.

[SamMcK]

God bless the likes of Brian Wilson, a man who’s had more then his own fair share of demons in his lifetime, I hope he is truly happy. (On a sidenote, its quite eye-opening for me personally to realise I’m now only a year younger than he was when he wrote the music for Pet Sounds) I look forward to seeing him perform on Sunday. (and next month when I'm in the States)

Hi, Sam. It's always a thrill to read about Pet Sounds. Thanks for your thoughts and enjoy the show on Sunday. :=) 

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it.

[Emily]

Pet Sounds is really personal to me. It's the first thing I remember my dad listening to, and the first thing I remember me listening to. One of my earliest memories is sitting with him in the living room, him telling me what the different instruments were. It was his favorite music to work by. Many evenings were spent with him doing his research and me doing my homework with Pet Sounds providing the ambience. My bedroom was right above the living room and I often fell asleep hearing Pet Sounds rise through the floor.
Then, when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I didn't listen to Pet Sounds or any Beach Boys for a while. But when the box set came out, my dad and I spent a lot of time on the phone going over every detail. And I used it to convert my boyfriend to a pretty hardcore fan. It reawakened my love for the Beach Boys.
The year my daughter was born, my dad died. When she was a baby, I sang songs from Pet Sounds to her. As she got older, I told her about the different instruments. Now I do my work to Pet Sounds while she does her homework. This spring we went together to see Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds show; it was her first pop concert and my first in a long time.
Pet Sounds is in the same part of my heart as my family.

[Jukka]

Pet Sounds is in the same part of my heart as my family.

Beautifully put.

My folks weren't into Beach Boys, but I am, and I started to educate my kids musically with Pet Sounds even before they were born. My daughter is now five, and she already sure knows what bass harmonica is.

[Cyncie]

I love Pet Sounds. I grew up with the fun and sun songs, and love them too. But, I Just Wasn't Made For These Times hit a nerve. Growing up, I always felt like I was tuned in to something different than my peers, and IJWMFTT expressed that feeling better than I ever could. I bop in the car whenever I hear Wouldn't it Be Nice and Sloop John B, but IJWMFTT,  God Only Knows, and Caroline No still bring tears to my eyes.

[The Old Master Painter]

It reminds me of a bright/neon ferris-wheel spinning late at night, or a happy couple having cotton candy somewhere near a beach and a blue riverside. It's the feeling you get when you are spending your last few days of childhood, and look towards a world ahead of you. It's that same exact feeling, only conveyed through music. Sounds and lyricism. It touches upon topics that we could all relate to. Love, death, loss of adolescence, society. Things that effect us on a day-to-day basis. Pet Sounds is a soundtrack to many people's lives, maybe because it helps us get through times were we feel uncertain of our own capacity. It helps us rediscover ourselves again, and essentially makes living life a tad more easier. It makes us more human.

[RangeRoverA1]

2 original poster: what is brand of the record player? I can't see the letters distinctly.

[SamMcK]

2 original poster: what is brand of the record player? I can't see the letters distinctly.

It's an Audio Technica AT-LP120 Turntable. (With a USB port)

[Sandy Baby]

In music and lyrics, it expresses the inexpressible.

"Words we both could say" ...  straight from the heart !

Personal    and universal,    dreamlike 
Honest,    profoundly emotional
Whimsical,    imaginative
Beautifully human.


Thanks to everyone involved!

[Manchini]

I changed a lot when I heard Pet Sounds as a 19 year old; partly because of the album and the effects of such rich music resonating with me, and partly just a correlation with changes I was already going through. It was a marked effect, the same way adolescence changed me before and adulthood would change me not much later.

The spirituality -- lacking a better term, but you all know what I mean -- that I perceived in Pet Sounds (and The Beach Boys' music in general, but this album had a more defined impact) was a catalyst to my growth, a growth that was flawed in some aspects and ideal in others. I let go of a lot of baggage, certain ways that I was posturing and habits I'd formed in my thinking that I knew wouldn't be conducive to becoming my Self. My belief system became more flexible, I became more open. More relaxed in some ways and more rigid and anxious in others, because this album made me care more about almost everything in life. My ambitions became no more defined but much more passionate. My own art became a lot more honest and, frankly, better. It allowed me to embrace my sensitivities and affirmed my own conviction that the only stuff worth pursuing in life and art are rich, exalting, and honest.

Yeah, most of these changes happen to a young adult anyhow, but I would be lying if I said the Pet Sounds album wasn't a major part of it. It's one of the only albums that's never been tainted by bad circumstances or rough times (you know how strong music association can be on the memory). I don't even listen to it all the way through anymore, but I'll play individual tracks from it and I find them just as interesting and inspiring as ever. I saw it performed live in 2006 when I was just getting into it and was obsessed with it, and I'll be seeing it live in October of this year.

[The Old Master Painter]

Sir Brian (I'm calling him that, because he deserves the title) should read this thread. Really.

[lostbeachboy]

It's about Life and living and love. Whether you actually experienced the subjects or not on this mystical masterpiece, you feel it deep in your soul. There is a little of each and every one of us in those songs, and a little of those songs in all of us. So on Monday May 16 2016, look, listen, imagine, enjoy.

[Margarita]

I first heard Pet Sounds when I received the album as a gift in 1986, along with Sgt. Pepper.  I was in 9th grade.  Both records were immediately important to me - I'm an old soul who has always favored music from before my time.  But Pet Sounds affected me deeply because I understood right away that Brian was singing about what I was feeling.  I believe that's why PS is so important to so many people - that despite the fact that Brian was wealthy, famous, talented, handsome, and athletic, he also still felt insecurity, heartbreak, longing, love, and despair just like anyone else.  The themes of the album are universal. 
I used "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" as the theme to the monologue I wrote and performed for my senior drama project.
When my father passed away, I couldn't listen to PS for several weeks, just because I wasn't ready to feel anything deeply yet.   My father is the one who introduced me to the music of the Beach Boys when I was about 3 years old. 
The day the PS box came out, I overslept.  I wasn't the least bit concerned about being late to work - my first thought was, "oh, I can just stop and buy it on the way to the office!" (Fortunately I worked at a place where we didn't punch time clocks, and being out of the office was no big deal since we were often out at client meetings and whatnot).
And I met the guy I married - 16 years and counting - because of our mutual love of Pet Sounds.  It turns out that years before we met, we were both listening to our new PS CDs at pretty much the same time - Christmas 1990 - about 800 miles apart.
This album is tattooed on my soul.

[Wrightfan]

I first heard the whole album around 2001-2002. I found it at an FYE in the suburbs of NYC. My Uncle (who was a huge fan of the surfing era Beach Boys) had just passed away a year or two before. I had heard his greatest hits tape and wanted to explore more. I spotted the Pet Sounds CD and bought it right away.

I can comfortably say that if I live another 80 years, I still won't hear anything as perfect as it.

[SamMcK]

Its interesting that the most recent post on Brian's Facebook uses the photo I've been using recently as my profile picture on Smiley Smile and Facebook! (and I have been commenting on their FB posts) Part of me wonders if that helped their decision.

[Emily]

Its interesting that the most recent post on Brian's Facebook uses the photo I've been using recently as my profile picture on Smiley Smile and Facebook! (and I have been commenting on their FB posts) Part of me wonders if that helped their decision.

I was actually wondering if you had gotten it from the tour program. It's an adorable picture. I'm afraid the fox takes my attention completely away from the other subject though.

[HeyJude]

Having been groomed (and grooming myself) on a lot of hits compilations (and other compilations that weren't exactly all hits either), I've always found my introduction to "Pet Sounds" all those years ago as interesting and telling as to its quality. Before I became a scholarly fan, I was given "Pet Sounds" as a gift and just processed it through my musical brain at the time as another one of those compilations. It's not that I necessarily actually thought it was a compilation, I probably processed that it was an "album" unto itself (I was very young). Either way, I just loved it because all the songs were great. Sounds simple and perhaps may seem to undercut the weight of the album to some. But I've always thought "Pet Sounds" was likely truly their best album because all of the songs were great. No filler. I love all of their albums, but just about everything they did up to that point (which I learned once I became more studious) in terms of albums had a little bit of filler. Not even anything I ever hated, but some definite "B" material.

But there's nothing like that on PS. It's the reason it stands up to the Beatles; there's no filler.

I also loved PS from first hearing it without having much context. I didn't know of the lore, of it influencing the Beatles, of it being roundly noted as their best album.

To me, all those decades and decades ago, PS started out as "that album that has all good stuff like the stuff on 'Sunshine Dream'!"

[catlag]

To me, Pet Sounds, is a gift or pure love. I first discovered it only last fall, so it's still new to me. It took a few times for it to sink into my soul, but when it happened, I just couldn't believe what I was feeling. It was love! And then I read that Brian had intended for this album to bring love to people, and I'm still amazed beyond words that he did exactly that. What an artist! Brian truly has a gift and his generosity to share it knows no bounds. Today, 50 years after he opened his heart and soul for everybody, he is still sharing the beauty of his masterpiece with the world. Incredible and truly inspiring!

[Emdeeh]

Carl Wilson singing "God Only Knows" live over the years. What a song, what a generous soul, and what a voice!

[KDS]

I first heard Pet Sounds ten years ago, at the age of 25.   

I decided to dip my toes into the ocean that was The Beach Boys.  I got myself a copy of Sounds of Summer as a starter, and their essential album Pet Sounds.

I enjoyed SOS, but I have to confess, I was not impressed with Pet Sounds.  I remember listening to the album, thinking "This is one of the greatest albums of all time?" 

As I got deeper into my 20s, I began to listen a little more.  More songs other than the big three (WIBN, SJB, GOK) slowly started to stand out.  I Know There's an Answer in particular. 

I saw The Beach Boys in concert during the C50 Tour and was blown away hearing Brian sing I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.  I spent more time with the album that summer. 

Finally, I met the love of my life in late 2012.  As we courted, I'd play her Beach Boys music.  During our first trip to the beach, I played God Only Knows on the jukebox.  We listened to that album quite a bit. 

By 2013, I finally "got it."  It took seven years, and quite a bit of life experience, for me to truly appreciate Pet Sounds, and recognize it for the truly special album that it is. 

In 2015, I married the girl I met in late 2012.  At our reception, we were introduced to Wouldn't It Be Nice.  We had our first dance to God Only Knows.  The final song played at the reception was Sloop John B. 

This year, we'll have the chance to hear Pet Sounds in person by Brian Wilson and his great band.  It's sure to be an unbelievable experience about an unbelievable album. 

[Emily]

I first heard Pet Sounds ten years ago, at the age of 25.   

I decided to dip my toes into the ocean that was The Beach Boys.  I got myself a copy of Sounds of Summer as a starter, and their essential album Pet Sounds.

I enjoyed SOS, but I have to confess, I was not impressed with Pet Sounds.  I remember listening to the album, thinking "This is one of the greatest albums of all time?" 

As I got deeper into my 20s, I began to listen a little more.  More songs other than the big three (WIBN, SJB, GOK) slowly started to stand out.  I Know There's an Answer in particular. 

I saw The Beach Boys in concert during the C50 Tour and was blown away hearing Brian sing I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.  I spent more time with the album that summer. 

Finally, I met the love of my life in late 2012.  As we courted, I'd play her Beach Boys music.  During our first trip to the beach, I played God Only Knows on the jukebox.  We listened to that album quite a bit. 

By 2013, I finally "got it."  It took seven years, and quite a bit of life experience, for me to truly appreciate Pet Sounds, and recognize it for the truly special album that it is. 

In 2015, I married the girl I met in late 2012.  At our reception, we were introduced to Wouldn't It Be Nice.  We had our first dance to God Only Knows.  The final song played at the reception was Sloop John B. 

This year, we'll have the chance to hear Pet Sounds in person by Brian Wilson and his great band.  It's sure to be an unbelievable experience about an unbelievable album. 

I hope listening to Sloop John B as you set out on your honeymoon didn't hex it!

[KDS]

I first heard Pet Sounds ten years ago, at the age of 25.   

I decided to dip my toes into the ocean that was The Beach Boys.  I got myself a copy of Sounds of Summer as a starter, and their essential album Pet Sounds.

I enjoyed SOS, but I have to confess, I was not impressed with Pet Sounds.  I remember listening to the album, thinking "This is one of the greatest albums of all time?" 

As I got deeper into my 20s, I began to listen a little more.  More songs other than the big three (WIBN, SJB, GOK) slowly started to stand out.  I Know There's an Answer in particular. 

I saw The Beach Boys in concert during the C50 Tour and was blown away hearing Brian sing I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.  I spent more time with the album that summer. 

Finally, I met the love of my life in late 2012.  As we courted, I'd play her Beach Boys music.  During our first trip to the beach, I played God Only Knows on the jukebox.  We listened to that album quite a bit. 

By 2013, I finally "got it."  It took seven years, and quite a bit of life experience, for me to truly appreciate Pet Sounds, and recognize it for the truly special album that it is. 

In 2015, I married the girl I met in late 2012.  At our reception, we were introduced to Wouldn't It Be Nice.  We had our first dance to God Only Knows.  The final song played at the reception was Sloop John B. 

This year, we'll have the chance to hear Pet Sounds in person by Brian Wilson and his great band.  It's sure to be an unbelievable experience about an unbelievable album. 

I hope listening to Sloop John B as you set out on your honeymoon didn't hex it!

Not at all, Emily.  It was the BEST trip I'd ever been on. 

But, we didn't get on any sloops.